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Rural hospital emergency room closing

Dustin Barnes, The Clarion-Ledger 9:35 a.m. CDT July 16, 2014

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Business at emergency rooms in Mississippi could be seeing a decline as more federal dollars are being directed away from programs that reimburse hospitals for providing emergency treatments to patients without health care coverage.(Photo: Rick Guy/The Clarion-Ledger Rick Guy/The Clarion-Ledger)Buy Photo

A rural Mississippi hospital emergency room will close its doors in September, citing cost of running the 24-hour medical service. The move means residents might have to travel further for overnight emergency medical services.

Trace Regional Hospital will cease to have an ER on Sept. 8, but will open a health clinic with shortened hours to serve emergency medical needs in Chickasaw County, reported WTVA.

"We could not sustain any longer our emergency services and because of that, we found a different alternative for the future," the hospital CEO, Gary Staten, told the news station.

The new clinic's hours will run from 9 a.m.-9 p.m., seven days a week. But the lack of overnight hours has been worrisome to residents who might have to drive 30 minutes to the next closest ER at the North Mississippi Medical Center in Pontotoc.

"Those are good hours, but what if something happens late at night? You'll need somewhere to go," Gail Turner, a Houston resident, told the TV station.

The closure is one some state leaders have said could be possible if Mississippi refused to expand Medicaid under the federal Affordable Care Act.

State Sen. David Blount has been a proponent of Medicaid expansion, saying that many Mississippians depend on emergency rooms because they lack reliable health care.

"The federal government is cutting or eliminating programs that pay hospitals for treating uninsured patients. This money is being redirected to fund the cost of Medicaid expansion," Blount said in a Clarion-Ledger editorial. "If our state does not expand Medicaid, these hospitals will lose federal payments and not receive the funds that replace them."